Mid-Pike Plaza- Northward View, 2009, WatercolorI began the "Splendors of Rockville" Series in August of 2009 as a visual commentary on life in the suburbs.The images are incomplete, unfortunately, becaue my scanner is not large enough to handle an 11" X 17" image.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Early on, I decided that the Oilspot Series would be comprised of "system paintings."

As a system painter, I view graphic works of art as systematic documentations of context. A painting manifests the overall general context of its creation and being, comprising the contextual elements affecting its creator, process of creation, audience, and external circumstances of its later existence. It is a systematic documentation in that it represents a combination of rules determined by its creator, mediated by circumstances impinging upon the process of its creation, and finally influenced by the interpretive dynamics of its audience, which largely determine the quality and longevity of its survival as a documentary image. Hence, each individual perception of the image constitutes a momentary intersection of all of these contextual variables.

Rules mandated by the creator-artist for composing his systematic documentation may range from simple and straightforward (such as: “all straight lines in this painting will be red and face upward”), to complex and oblique (i.e.:“I wish to incorporate paradox by using bright pastel shades to represent my feeling of melancholic angst”). However, consistency of expression is best preserved through a planned amalgamation of simple rules, rather than attempting to incorporate the more complex image constructs of the social persona, which, in any case, represent unchosen, pre-ordained combinations of simple rules.

Welcome to my gallery, showcasing the Splendors of Rockville, Maryland: a group of paintings by Alex Rogolsky (the "man on the edge," above), comprising: the Oilspot Series, a group of abstracts inspired by my having seen an oilspot on asphalt in a parking lot, and the Splendors of Rockville- scenes from the daily life of our dynamic community.